why am i here?

Friday, October 31, 2008

breaking news: wilco do something...

i recently commented on the proliferation of a-trak/diplo/spank rock/xxxchange posts lately, reasoning that, among others, wilco haven't done anything since last year's sky blue sky. well now they have a new song! performing on the comedy central's the colbert report, in a particularly self-referential mood, jeff and co sang "Wilco will love you, baby." well isn't that lovely.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

why i love maya arulpragasam

deeper than you think

i had heard the name lyrics born in connection to the bay area hip-hop scene, quannum and all that, but you could say i first got him at lollapalooza in 2006. dude is titchy, but he's got some presence. wordplay doesn't come close, and if i hadn't seen blackalicious on the same stage later that day his would have gone down as one of the best hip-hop performances i'd ever seen (i'm generally disappointed by live hip-hop, it was a good day). to be honest, i haven't paid him enough attention over the past two years since that show, but i have a passing interest in what he's doing.

i caught a myspace bulletin asking for bloggers to get in touch, so i threw my name out there. of course this is just a promotional exercise, and in other situations i mightn't think much of it, but this is special. his new track Whispers is one of those tracks about the death of a close friend, in this case one with whom the speaker has lost touch. it's a bit like a more eloquent version of dre's the message. an interesting choice of single, it's nothing like a lot of the self-aggrandising verbosity by which he made his name. it's definitely worth a listen, and if nothing else i know i'm going to go and revisit the man's work.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

what a surprise...

another diplo post.

pitchfork tells of a forthcoming diplo compilation, it's not till january but it'll be a beaut. obviously... i'm particularly excited about Smash a Kangaroo, which was released as part of an itunes only package last year. i first heard that particular track when diplo was speaking on australia's triple j in early 07, but apart from ripping the track from the shoddy audio i haven't been able to get my hands on it properly. also of note is the official title of the work is never over track. not a kanye remix after all bloggers... and then of course there's 200. whassa? maybe he'll play it at whp...

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

the stress of it all.

i've too many blogs to worry about. it's three now.

in the last week i've tried to work out all the tracks in spank rock's voila mix. i've done all i can with it, some of them are just impossible to track down. but if you can, listen, download, buy it. it's just awesome. you can get it in urban outfitters like. that's where i bought it. you won't regret it.

i think i may talk about a-trak, diplo, spank rock and xxxchange a little bit too much. probably because wilco and boards of canada haven't released anything in a while. and where's sufjan?!

Thursday, October 09, 2008

what next, the end of the world?!

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

wow

this pretty much looks like the best thing ever. also i finally got around to listening to ladyhawke's album today. it's great, in an 80s-tastic way but not in a cheesy 80s way, more of a melodic non-hair-metal hair-metal-sung-by-a-sexy-blonde way. if that makes any sense at all.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

inconsistency in a world gone mad

i write for analogue every monday. well, by every monday i mean before i go to bed in the am of every tuesday. it's a bad habit, but there is some consistency to it, unfortunate or otherwise. so i figured i'd write here every tuesday. at least. i just need good content dammit.

i've been trying to do a mix these past few days, along with a host of other commitments. i always find it hard to do a mix when i have other commitments, it's so much easier to do them when you can literally spend hours deliberating over what tracks to play together, even to the finer details of what bar to introduce the enxt track and at what level - banging from the start, slow fade in or somewhere in between? i tried to do a momentous two hour mix a few months ago, working at it night by night and piecing it all together. i got to an hour and fifteen minutes before i got angry and gave up. i've reached a stage where the best mixes i do are just under an hour - any longer and they lose focus and i lose interest.

the other week i put up two mixes but blogger took them down. boourns. so i doubt there'll be much of an outlet on the internet for such things other than through email and facebook messages. ho-hum. anyway, some of the tracks floating my boat right now are as follows: a-trak's remix of bounce. dj rob 3's the chase. laidback luke's rave edit of be. actually that one deserves a special mention. i heard be months ago, then i heard the segaversion, which i loved, but then, when i belatedly started listening to ayres' wmc mix, more drugs, i heard this rave edit. and sat so perfectly in the mix, just coming in at the wonky fade-out part of surkin's white knight two, that i couldn't help but love it. there was another track in that mix that's been getting a lot of love from myself, larry heard's the sun can't compare. it's just beautiful, there's no other way of describing it. the same can be said for the supermayerremix of hot chip's one pure though - they isolate the bassline of this pumping tune and turn it into a languid, delicate masterpiece.

and i guess that is all. check out the rub (and their history of hip-hop mixtape series), mad decent and pitchfork, from whence i shamelessly stole some links.